Author
Topic: Fun with foreign orders on Discogs (Read 1275 times)

I've had a Discogs account for maybe 5 years now, sold quite a few cd's there. Sometimes I sell stuff way below the inflated prices of others because I ACTUALLY want to get money for it, instead of just putting it up as a museum piece and dangling an astronomical sum that nobody would ever pay, or showing off that I have something 500 users want. I did this recently for a 3-CD box that retails for $40 new. Ltd. to 500 copies. Like new. $17.50 I think is pretty damn good price.

To my dismay, a buyer from Russia with ZERO feedback and their name and address all written in RUSSIAN characters decided to buy it. When I wrote to them explaining I do not read Russian and that I need this information in English, they wrote back something which was barely any better than the Russian characters ("sity Leningrad, house 485"), which I really don't feel comfortable sending anything to. I sent them an invoice with their total, including shipping charges. They write back saying something like : "I pay for 1 vinyl, 2 CD? or? 2 vinyl one CD?? pls check." WTF??? I do not even sell vinyl. It's on my clearly stated shipping information. After a couple days of this time wasting/stalling, they finally write back: "Only way to pay for the account is bank transfer." My seller information clearly stated PAYPAL only accepted and nothing about any bank transfers.

I have experienced similar situations over the years. Is this a form of spam, where this person picks a random item on Discogs or eBay and then just tries to annoy the shit out of the seller, with no intention of buying?? Are they trying to hack into my computer or steal my identity? Any ideas?

Over the last two days, I've had two others like this. One guy on eBay kept asking questions but never bought anything (and everything about the item was perfect and to their benefit). Another on Discogs asked "does this CD have any scratches" when I listed the item as NEAR MINT, which is defined on Discogs clearly as "like new." They also asked "how much to ship to the UK?" when it is clearly in my payment and shipping information, spelled out to the letter. Then they write back about they're "waiting for some funds from their grandmother to clear the bank" (ok the grandmother part I made up). You know they're gonna flake out after wasting all my precious time.

According to Discogs reply to my inquiry, users can register with foreign characters like Russian. Does this make any sense? Isn't English the universal language? I have shipped lots of stuff to Japan and those orders weren't in Kanji. How does Discogs expect sellers to conduct business if they cannot read the orders???!